Western Approaches is a 1944 docufiction film directed by Pat Jackson and was Crown Film Unit's first Technicolor production. The music is by Clifton Parker.
It is the fictional account of 22 British Merchant Navy sailors adrift in a lifeboat. They are able to signal by Morse code their position. A nearby U-boat receives the signal along with a friendly vessel which changes course to go to their rescue. The captain of the U-boat decides to wait in ambush with its two remaining torpedoes. Before the rescue ship arrives, the U-boat's periscope is spotted by the lifeboat. The U-boat fires its torpedoes just as the rescue vessel is alerted to the U-boat's presence.
Although set in the North Atlantic, much of it was shot in the Irish Sea. Sailors rather than professional actors were used.
Trade papers reported that the film among those "doing well" at the British box office in 1945.
References
- "Pat Jackson interview" (PDF). British Entertainment History Project. 22 March 1991.
- "Pat Jackson". The Times. London. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2019. (subscription required)
- Murphy, Robert (2 September 2003). Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48, p. 207. Routledge. ISBN 9781134901500. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
External links
- Western Approaches at IMDb
- "Western Approaches" on YouTube
- Review of film at Variety
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